Mammoth Live Launches Management Division: Challenger Artists EXCLUSIVE  

From producing concerts and live events across the U.S. to developing artists: Mammoth Live has officially announced the launch of Challenger Artists, a new management venture with principals Peyton Marek and Hank Wiedel.

“As we approach Mammoth’s 20th anniversary, it’s incredibly exciting to officially announce Challenger Artists,” notes Josh Hunt Mammoth Live co-owner and CEO.  “Challenger represents a natural evolution for us, expanding our commitment to supporting artists in new and meaningful ways. With Challenger, we’re moving beyond the stage to build a full-spectrum support system that empowers artists to thrive creatively and professionally.” 

Marek and Wiedel recently shared what it means to have production experience as the foundation for a management company and what’s ahead.

“One of the key components to being a successful production company – and a production company does more than just the technical side of it, but the artist side of it – is hospitality and artist rapport,” says Wiedel. “Having a solid foundation of hospitality and being able to deal with artists in a way that is comfortable and keeping them happy out on the road is what Mammoth specifically strives for.”

Being integrated early when an artist is building a fanbase and road experience has its advantages.

“Mammoth books a lot of shows on the club level, sees those artists through to the theater level who eventually move to that small arena, sometimes amphitheater and stadium level,” explains Wiedel of the business overlap. “You’d be surprised at how many parallels there are from a production and promoter company to a management company in terms of understanding the artist and seeing them from small to big.”

Challenger Artists is helmed by Marek in Los Angles and Wiedel in Kansas City with a roster that includes The Wrecks (LAVA/Republic), Valley Boy (STEM/Apollo), TOLEDO (Symphonic), Post Sex Nachos (SoundOn) and Capital Soirée (independent), as well as writing and production clients James Alan (Sony Music Publishing), Nick Anderson of The Wrecks (KOSIGN) and Jordan Dunn-Pilz & Dan Alvarez of TOLEDO (Downtown Publishing).

Aligning production and management strategies creates efficiencies on the road where controlling costs can be challenging, according to Wiedel, who has 10+ years in talent buying most with Mammoth Live and more than five years in artist management.

“When you talk about being in the trenches on the production side, that comes with a wealth of resources and knowledge and expertise that come from our production managers, but also the tour managers who are out on the road with our artists every day,” says Wiedel. “Touring is expensive. Artists have exorbitant costs going out on the road. And the best thing that they can have is an infrastructure of the very best knowledge and people to tap into to help them better their experience while touring.”

Access to meaningful data that’s both tangible and observational is important to Marek, who has a decade of experience guiding artist careers. Her career began out of high school in Kansas City when she signed her first artists to a Capitol Records subsidiary.

“We’re collecting data from a numerical standpoint obviously with ticket sales and demographics but also from a figurative angle where we’re in close communication obviously with our road manager and our merch people that we put on the road, our front of house people – all those different angles,” says Marek.

Challenger Artists is a division of Mammoth Live, but they are working with Live Nation, AEG, Golden Voice and independent promoters.

“Seeing where we can join forces with or without Mammoth if it makes sense because you know there are so many great people and partners that we’ve worked with that have championed our artists and we obviously always want to continue to do that and go wide,” Marek adds.

While data is helpful, music is the cornerstone of their mission. TOLEDO is the most recent signing, but most of the artists on the roster have a track record with the company. Wiedel and Marek have an open mind when it comes to genre, with one condition.

“The number one aspect is that we have to like the music,” confides Marek. “We have to be huge supporters of the music because otherwise we have to fake it. And we never want to be in a position of doing that…We also want to be mindful that each artist is carving out their own lane on our roster so that we’re not double dipping on pitching them for opportunities. It allows us to be more creative as well.”